BACKGROUND Early diagnosis is important to lower the mortality rate of acute fatty liver of pregnancy (AFLP). The Swansea criteria is commonly used to diagnose AFLP, but some terms could only be reached when symptoms and signs have progressed, or are not efficient in clinical practice. Therefore, it is necessary to select cost effective tests to simplify and facilitate early suspicion of acute fatty liver of pregnancy. METHODS This is a retrospective study of 28,800 medical records at the Second Xiangya Hospital from 2009 to 2015, including 41 patients with AFLP and 172 other diseases that could show similar symptoms to AFLP. The evaluated variables included past history of liver diseases, blood pressure, gastrointestinal symptoms, blood count, liver function test, coagulation function test and blood sugar test. The sensitivity, specificity, positive predict value and negative predict value were calculated for models in diagnosing AFLP. RESULTS The significant variables associated with AFLP included gastrointestinal symptoms, blood pressure?&gt;?140/90?mmHg, aminotransferase&gt;?42?IU/l, total bilirubin&gt;?0.8?mg/dl, total bilirubin acid&gt;?10.0?μmol/L, activated partial prothrombin time(APTT)?&gt;?34?s, prothrombin time(PT)?&gt;?14?s, white blood cells&gt;?11 *106/l and blood sugar less then ?72?mg/dl. Gastrointestinal symptoms +aminotransferase +bilirubin +bile acid +APTT/PT showed 97.6% sensitivity and 97.1% specificity to diagnose AFLP. Adding blood pressure, blood sugar or white blood cells decreased the accuracy of the statistical model. CONCLUSIONS Application of a statistical model including maternal symptoms, biochemical and haematological parameters has high diagnostic accuracy for earlier identification of AFLP. However, this finding needs to be tested in another cohort to determine whether this statistical model has the same performance.BACKGROUND Musculoskeletal pain is common in the working population and may affect the work ability, especially among those with high physical work demands. This study investigated the association between physical work demands and work ability in workers with musculoskeletal pain. METHODS Workers with physically demanding jobs (n?=?5377) participated in the Danish Work Environment Cohort Study in 2010. Associations between physical work ability and various physical work demands were modeled using cumulative logistic regression analyses while controlling for possible confounders. RESULTS In the fully adjusted model, bending and twisting/turning of the back more than a quarter of the workday (reference less than a quarter of the workday) was associated with higher odds of lower work ability in workers with low-back pain (OR 1.38, 95% CI 1.09-1.74) and neck-shoulder pain (OR 1.29, 95% CI 1.01-1.64). When adding up the different types of demands, being exposed to two or more physical work demands for more than a quarter of the workday was consistently associated with lower work ability. CONCLUSIONS Work that involves high demands of the lower back seems especially problematic in relation to work ability among physical workers with musculoskeletal pain. Regardless of the specific type of physical work demand, being exposed to multiple physical work demands for more than a quarter of the workday was also associated with lower work ability.BACKGROUND Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the most common cancer and a leading cause of death worldwide. Extracellular matrix (ECM) proteins regulate tumor growth and development in CRC. Elastin (ELN) is a component of ECM proteins involved in the tumor microenvironment. However, the role of ELN in CRC remains unclear. METHODS In this study, we analyzed ELN gene expression in tumors from CRC patients and adjacent non-tumor colon tissues and healthy controls from two existing microarray datasets. ELN protein was measured in human normal colon cells and colon cancer epithelial cells and tumor development was assessed in colon epithelial cells cultured in medium with or without ELN peptide on plates coated with ELN recombinant protein. Control plates were coated with PBS only. RESULTS We found ELN gene expression was increased in tumors from CRC patients compared to adjacent non-tumor tissues and healthy controls. ELN protein was increased in cancer cells compared to normal colon epithelial cells. Transforming growtLN recombinant protein induced further increases in TNF protein in mouse bone marrow derived macrophages after lipopolysaccharide stimulation. CONCLUSIONS These data suggest ELN regulates tumor development and the microenvironment in CRC.BACKGROUND Streptococcus suis is a zoonotic pathogen that causes serious systemic infections in pigs and occupation-related infections in humans who contact with pigs or pork products. In China, it has caused two outbreaks of human infection and surveillance for S.suis has been ongoing since last time. CASE PRESENTATION Two cases of meningitis and sepsis caused by S. suis were reported in this study. Both patients work in relation to the pork trade, a risk factor for S. suis infection. The outcome was favorable after a prolonged ceftriaxone therapy but one patient was left with mild hearing loss. https://www.selleckchem.com/products/Naphazoline-hydrochloride-Naphcon.html Two isolates were identified as sequencing type (ST) 7, S. suis serotype 2 (SS2), which is one the most prevalent and cause two outbreaks in China. Whole-genome sequencing (WGS) revealed that a high degree identity was noted in the genome organizations and sequences between two sporadic ST7 SS2 isolates in this study and representative epidemic virulent isolates. Major differences among them are two sporadic ST7 SS2 isolates lacked a virulence factor called agglutinin receptor and an 89?K pathogenicity island (PAI), which plays important role in the pathogenesis of streptococcal toxic shock syndrome (STSS). A summary about STs of human infection with S. suis in China was completed. The result showed ST1 and ST7 were still the major STs and several novel STs were successfully discovered in different provinces. CONCLUSIONS Our results enhanced the understanding of the ability to cause life-threatening infections in humans and the distribution and evolution of the S. suis in China.